Common Council notes for the week of 1/31/22

The council agenda for this week will be relatively light, with the biggest item of discussion last week, being held over for the Finance Committee to take up again next week. More on that in a bit. 

Common Council 

Wednesday 7 p.m. - Among the items I anticipate council approving Wednesday, is an agreement with Grand Chute and Outagamie County to facilitate a new sewer line to service the Outagamie County landfill. This was discussed at Municipal Services and is necessary to handle discharge from the newest and final section of the landfill. The city will contribute to the project financially and also maintain the new infrastructure that is in the city.

A drawing of where the new sewer line for the landfill expansion will run underneath HWY 441 to an existing connection in the City of Appleton

Parklet Policy

As shown below, parklets are a relatively new amenity coming to Appleton, with the first installed last year. A parklet is essentially a small popup seating area installed in one or more on-street parking spaces. A number of lessons were learned by staff and Appleton Downtown Inc. which sponsored and installed the first temporary parklet last year. The policy developed by staff is a good step in spelling out the process of other organizations utilizing this opportunity during the warmer months coming up this year. 

An example of a parklet which is placed inside one or more on-street parking stalls

City Hall Renovations

I also expect the council will approve a $1.5 million contract for renovation work to the 5th/6th floors of City Hall. This is necessary work to provide workstation and security upgrades for the staff and general maintenance and upgrades to the common spaces for visitors. The last time any sort of work was done to remodel these spaces was 1994, nearly 30 years ago. Carpeting, tile, painting, lighting and various other projects will improve the visitor experience to City Hall and create an improved environment for staff. 

Public Works Director Search

While not desirable, I anticipate the council will also approve a request from the Human Resources Director to hire a search firm to help us with hiring a new Public Works Director. There was good discussion about this request at the Finance Committee and HR/IT Committee meetings last week. Our HR Director has run several hiring processes already for director level positions that the city knew would be coming open last year and this year. 

In the other processes, even those that took longer than we had hoped, there was not a shortage of interested applicants. However, the Public Works Director search so far has resulted in no candidates who really met all of the criteria the City is looking for. 

The contract for the search firm will be 25% of the new director's first year of salary.

Finance Committee Recap

The items that drew the most attention last week were handled in the Finance Committee and will not be on the council agenda for this week. 

A city branding project that was originally approved by the council to move ahead at the end of last year, was stopped by a 3-2 vote at the Finance Committee. The firm originally recommended by the staff pulled out of consideration after questions were raised about the proposal from the firm. 

That led to a recommendation from Mayor Woodford to restart the search process with a new request for proposals later this year, incorporating council feedback and possibly outside partners to help with the process. 

However, alderwoman Katie Van Zeeland asked for the proposal to be held indefinitely, a request that was supported by alders Firkus and Meltzer. 

Following that motion, the committee took up a resolution by alders Van Zeeland, Firkus, Prohaska, Fenton and Wolff. The resolution requests $400,000 to be spent on a new city website, style guide for use of the city logo, enhanced crosswalks and upgrades for computers for staff. 

As I noted at the committee meeting, none of the authors reached out to the staff to discuss these items before submitting the resolution. Unless there are extenuating circumstances or time constraints, I believe alders should always consult with staff before submitting a resolution. In fact, it's even noted in the council handbook. 

The practice allows for good discussion and feedback to improve a resolution before its even introduced, or as is the case with this resolution, would help form an understanding from staff of why it is not necessary or feasible. 

The city website is in need of an overhaul, but there are improvements that can be made to the current site to address some of the shortcomings. As noted to me by staff in both public works and the police department, the claim that enhanced crosswalks are need to improve pedestrian safety from reckless drivers is not accurate. Staff also pointed out that no amount of engineering of crosswalks can prevent a pedestrian accident with a reckless driver in a crosswalk.  That's not to say that reckless driving is not a problem in the city, it is and the police department is researching ways to address it. But more enhanced crosswalks won't solve the issue. To add more crosswalks will require changes to the criteria for the program and before allocating money for that purpose, the municipal services committee needs to discuss if changes are warranted. Lastly, the computer issues noted in the resolution are in fact needs, but those needs must be addressed as part of a larger solution along with the entire city network, the traffic camera program and other device and security upgrades. With a new IT director in place in just the last few months, I suggested we give him the time to assess all of the technology needs and bring a recommendation forward for discussion. 

While well-intentioned, I don't believe this resolution is necessary at this time, nor does it solve any of the issues it seeks to address as staff are not prepared, or able to deal with these items at this time. I will suggest at the next Finance Committee that this resolution be denied.

Get In Touch

I am always available to answer questions at district15@appleton.org or (920) 419-1360. As always, agendas can be found on the agenda and meetings page of the city website. Meetings can be viewed live on the website or watched at a later date. Meetings are also open for anyone to attend in person and all meetings take place in the Common Council chambers on the 6th floor of City Hall, unless otherwise noted.